Hello everyone and welcome to our latest
webinar; "What Are Customs Brokers and
Freight Forwarders?" I'm Nick Esposito
I'll be your host and presenter today. I
wear many hats here at TRG, but one of
my favorite roles is that of an educator
to both my fellow co-workers and you my
audience of importers, exporters, and other
international trade professionals. This
webinar is being presented by Trade Risk
Guaranty Brokerage Services, LLC or as
we're commonly referred to as TRG. We're
located in the heart of downtown Bozeman,
Montana which as of late can't decide if
it wants to be winter, spring, or summer.
On Monday it went from 66 and sunny to
32 and snowing within a few hours. As we
like to say around these parts; if you
don't like the weather, just wait a few
minutes. If you're in town, don't be shy
stop on by the second floor of the
historic Rocking 'R' Bar building. Our
direct-to-importer business model is unique
to the Customs Bond and Cargo Insurance
markets. We've grown our business over
the last 26 years to encompass over
10,000 clients from all avenues of
international trade. As an important
disclaimer, the information presented in
this webinar is for information purposes
only and is not intended and does not
constitute legal advice. We will be
recording this webinar and it'll be
available on YouTube for future
reference. To be notified the moment it
releases and to keep a pulse on TRG's
educational videos, I highly recommend
you subscribe to our YouTube channel. You
can also search for it by typing Trade
Risk Guaranty space YouTube into Google
and clicking the first result. If you've
any additional questions outside the
webinar or if you'd like to be part of a
community of trade professionals, join
our Facebook group 'International Trade
Professionals - TRG'. We regularly check
the group for questions and encourage
our members to start conversations
amongst themselves if they have a common
problem. Today's webinar topics will
cover 'what are Customs Brokers and three
great questions to ask them', 'what are
freight forwarders as well as three
great questions to ask them', 'where can you
find Customs Brokers and Freight
Forwarders', and 'the differences between
Customs Brokers
and Freight Forwarders'.
Our first topic today will be 'What Are
Customs Brokers?' First, let's take a look
at the definition of and requirements to
be a Customs Broker per the Customs website.
Customs Brokers are private individuals,
partnerships, associations, or
corporations licensed, regulated, and
empowered by U.S. Customs and Border
Protection to assist importers and
exporters in meeting federal
requirements governing imports and
exports. Brokers submit necessary
information and appropriate payments to
CBP on behalf of their clients and
charge them a fee for the service.
Brokers must have an expertise in the
entry procedures, admissibility
requirements, classification, valuation,
and the rates of duty and applicable
taxes and fees for imported merchandise.
Customs states that there's
approximately eleven thousand active
licensed Customs Brokers. So here's a fun
fact, if we approximate the
active number of U.S. importers that
hold continuous U.S. Customs Bonds to be
between 250,000 to 300,000, we find that
there are between 22 to 27 importers for
every one Customs Broker. Pretty cool! So
what does this all mean? Licensed Customs
brokers are required to pass a rigorous
government-mandated test and background
search prior to engaging in Customs
business on behalf of U.S. Importers. At
their foundation all Customs Brokers
must possess an expert understanding of
the Customs Code of Federal Regulations
and display a deep understanding of the
Harmonized Tariff System, as it
ultimately provides the determination of
the duty rate for each unique commodity.
The combination of their expertise in
these fields allows them to act as a
liaison between the importer and Customs.
What this translates to for many
importers is that the Customs Broker
prepares and delivers the necessary
paperwork collaborates with the importer
determine an appropriate classification
pays duties and fees and handles other
crucial interactions with Customs during
the process of importing goods.
Let's take a moment to discuss an
incredibly crucial topic, which is where
legal responsibility of the goods lies
in the eyes of Customs. The Importer of
Record or IOR, not the Customs Broker,
is liable for any mistakes made
during the process of importation.
Additionally, Customs absolutely will not
accept an omission of understanding. In
other words, saying you didn't know
doesn't matter to Customs. Again, I can't
stress this enough, regardless of who
makes the mistakes, the IOR is ultimately
held legally responsible for their goods.
So what does this mean for you the
importer of record? When it comes to
classification of your goods, it's in
your best interest to have multiple
sources involved in the final
determination of the classification you
plan to use. While we're on the subject,
it is also in your best interest not to
rely on the foreign manufacturer to
classify your goods or more
importantly, supplier HTSUS codes.
Importers utilizing suppliers suggested
tariff code may be falsely lured into
perceiving lower prices as a result of a
lower duty rate. The foreign manufacturer
will not be held liable for the
misclassification of your goods, again, as
the importer of record the burden to
properly classify the goods rests on
your shoulders. What are some of the
specific services and paperwork that
Customs Brokers provide for an importer? Customs
Brokers will transmit your Importer
Security Filing (also known as ISF),
declare your right to make entry,
properly fill out and file your entry
summary (7501), file your cargo release, pay
duties and fees on your behalf, and they
may even have helped determine your
classification. It's important to note
that the accuracy of documentation is
essential because while Customs may
inadvertently accept inaccurate
paperwork, they will eventually catch on
to the inaccuracies which could result
in massive penalties down the road. It is
not unheard of for Customs to miss a
classification mistake for multiple
years and seek remedy for a period of up
to five years prior. Even on entries that
have already liquidated. Some of you, up
to this point, may be thinking 'That
sounds great Nick, but I'm not really
sure what any of this means.' So let's
take a step back and analyze where the
Customs Broker fits in during the process
of entry of foreign goods. And
on this chart, we can roughly lump
things into two categories; everything
that needs to happen before the goods
reach the U.S., everything that happens
once the goods arrive in the U.S.
Let's discuss what needs to happen
before the goods arrive. The first step
in the entry process happens even before
the goods have left the foreign port.
This step is known as the Importer
Security Filing, in which you, or for the
sake of this webinar, your Customs Broker
is sending Customs various data elements
about your cargo destined for the U.S.
This is essentially a report that
details where your goods are coming from,
who manufactured and sold them to you,
who is in contact with them at origin,
and to whom they will be shipped.
Basically, a means for Customs to
pre-screen the goods you import and
determine if there will be further
inspection upon arrival. This data filing
must be completed no later than 24 hours
before the goods are placed on the
foreign vessel bound for the U.S., so
pretty far in advance. If your goods are
due to arrive and their final
destination is an ocean port, the Customs
Broker can pre-clear your entry at the
port of discharge up to five days in
advance. If your cargo will be
forwarding or travelling to some inland
port, the Customs Broker must wait for
the cargo to reach its destination port
prior to making entry. The vast majority
of Customs Brokers today transmit data
through a method known as Remote
Location Filing, 'RLF', allows your
broker to submit your data entry and pay
duties and fees from their living room in
Fargo, while your cargo is sitting at the
port in Memphis. Pretty cool! Let me go into
more detail on that, before your goods
arrive in the U.S., the Customs Broker, on
behalf of the importer, must also make
arrangements at the port of entry, the
place where duties and documentation will be
filed. What this does is
signals to Customs at which port you'll
be interacting with them, so when the
goods arrive at the port the Customs
Officials know what to do with the goods
and what to expect.
Once your goods have arrived in the U.S.
they cannot be cleared by Customs into
your broker has coordinated the
commercial documentation for Customs
review or immediately.
What are the commercial
documents required, you asked? Your broker
will need your commercial invoice,
packing list, and bill of lading and they
may additionally request the arrival
notice. Submitting these documents to
your broker prior to arrival will
ensure the timely release of your cargo
and help you to avoid any unnecessary
storage fees. As long as the Customs
Broker has all the proper documentation
they will generally file for Immediate
Release which encompasses filing the
cargo release, filing the entry summary
7501, and paying estimated duties. Here's
a quick breakdown of each of these.
Filing the Cargo Release: this releases
the goods from Customs custody and
declares that the importers have the right to
make entry into the U.S. File Entry
Summary: also known as a Customs Form
7501. Customs Brokers file this document
by collecting the data from your
Commercial Invoice, Packing List, and Bill
of Lading. They gather and collect data that
informs the classification of your goods,
the origin of the goods, the value, and
quantity of the goods. Pay Estimated
Duties; as you can imagine this is a
crucial step in which the Customs Broker
pays duties and fees assessed on the
tariff and value the commercial invoice
on your behalf,
based on the information contained in
the 7501. For more details on the entry
process, check out our previous webinar:
The Process of Liquidation and Entering
Goods into the United States. As you may
have gathered, at this point the Customs
Broker plays a massive and crucial role
in the Process of Importation that
directly affects your supply chain. Which
means finding the right one is also a
crucial task. To that end, I've compiled
three of my favorite questions to kick
start the vetting process of finding a
good Customs Broker. Question number one:
Mr. Customs Broker, how will you help my
company ensure proper compliance with
Customs regulations? One of my favorites.
Basically, you want to make sure that
they have a finger on the pulse of
Customs. How are they monitoring new
compliance protocols being released by
Customs? Are they part of any key
trade compliance organizations? For
example; I-CPA, which is International
Compliance Professionals, or the NCBFA,
a National Customs Brokers And
Forwarders Association of America.
Question number two: Mr. Customs
Broker, do you have any pending lawsuits
or violations and/or have you been
sanctioned by Customs? As you can imagine
you probably wouldn't want to work with
a Customs Broker that has pending lawsuits or
violations. Additionally, if they've been
sanctioned by Customs, that means they
have to make cash deposits to
Customs. Effectively eliminating payment
by other means and severely limiting
their capabilities. As you can imagine,
being sanctioned by Customs is not a
good thing.
Question number three: Mr. Customs
Broker, how much do your services cost?
It's important to know how much your
Customs Broker is going to charge you
and asking for a breakdown of fees is a
great way to compare Customs Brokers.
Here's a few things to ask about to
get you started.
You can ask about ISF filing, entry
filing, warehouse entry, partner
government agency (or PGA), entry filing, or
even for Customs Bonds. Now many of you
may already be aware, but the Customs
Bond can be sourced directly from an
insurance agency just like TRG.
Customs Bonds aside, there are roughly
11,000 Customs Brokers out there, so
don't feel like you're stuck with one. By
all means, do a cost comparison between
your favourite options.
Now that you have an understanding of
Customs Brokers, let's dig into Freight
Forwarders. As you can imagine, Freight
Forwarders could very easily be a
webinar of its own, so I've tried to keep
it pretty simple today with the idea
that we'll have future in depth webinar
that digs into the complexity of specific
freight forwarder topics. To start,
Freight Forwarders can be defined as a
firm specializing in arranging storage
and shipping of merchandise on behalf of
its shippers, it usually provides a full
range of services including tracking
inland transportation, preparation
of shipping and export documents,
warehousing, booking cargo space,
negotiating freight charges, freight
consolidation, cargo insurance, and filing
of insurance claims. Freight Forwarders
usually ship under their own bills of
lading or air waybills,
called house bill of lading or house air
waybills, and their agents or associates
at the destination (overseas
freight brokers) provide document
delivery, deconsolidation,
and freight collection services. As
witnessed in the previous definition, the
term Freight Forwarders can conceivably
cover a wide range of professionals and
services and their role depends on the
need of your company. The advantage of
working with a Freight Forwarder is that
they can act as an extension of your
business, their level of involvement in
your organization's supply chain can
vary depending on how you engage them. At
their root Forwarders are logistics
professionals with a deep knowledge of
moving freight from one location to
another and managing the transportation
to avoid or minimize freight holds,
demurrage,
and attention for their clients.
Foreigners working on behalf of
importers will coordinate and provide
necessary documents to the Customs
Broker such as the bill of lading and
arrival notice. Unlike the Customs Broker,
who has expertise in Customs regulation,
classification, Customs required forms,
and clearing Customs; the Freight
Forwarder advocates for the timely
pickup and delivery of her customers'
shipments by coordinating with a vast
network of transportation and compliance
professionals. The most classical example
of Freight Forwarders are UPS, FedEx,
DHL. Makes sense right? They pick up the
freight at one location, they utilize
their shipping network to determine the
movement of the goods, and finally
freight winds up in a different location
at its destination.
So we've got a basic idea of the breadth
of service Freight Forwarders cover.
Let's discuss some of the common
terms associated with Freight Forwarders
that we frequently get questions on.
First, let's discuss Freight
Consolidation and Deconsolidation. Freight
Consolidation is the means by which
multiple smaller shipments from
different importers are grouped together
to create a larger, fuller shipment.
Usually utilized as a cost-saving
technique, in addition to time-saving, by
frequency of travel in specific trade
lines. Deconsolidation occurs after the
goods have arrived at the shared
destination. The goods must then be
separated back out into their smaller
shipments to be further dispersed to
warehouses or final destinations. Next we
have FCL/LCL which stands for Full
Container Load and Less Than Container
Load. Full Container Load means that all
the cargo in a single shipping container
is all your cargo. Less Than Container
Load shipments are those of lesser
volume and can be consolidated at an
origin point with many cosignee's goods
all sharing cargo space. It's like
buying a seat on kayak.com but in an ocean
container.
Followed by FTL/LTL. Similar to FCL/LCL,
FTL stands for Full Truck Load while LTL
stands for Less Than Truck Load. You've
probably noticed that instead of a
container the goods in this sense are
being moved via truckload instead of by
a container. Additionally, another
difference is that in some cases less
than truck load may simply mean that you
require a smaller specialized vehicle to
move your goods. It doesn't necessarily
mean your goods have been
consolidated with another's as compared
to container shipping.
Moving on, let's discuss a few more items
you've probably heard thrown around. First,
Ocean Carrier which generally refers to
the shipping lanes that operate the
cargo ships that are physically moving
the goods from one country to another.
Some of the bigwigs in the game are
Maersk, Hapaq-Lloyd, CMA CGM Group. Next we
have NVOCC, which stands for Non-Vessel
Operating Common Carrier. Again, this is
an element that could very easily be an
upcoming webinar topic all of its own.
But for now let's stick to a simple
definition NVOCCs are similar to
carriers, however, they don't own the
cargo ships. Instead they've purchased
slots on cargo ships from the shipping
line that they, in turn, turn around and
sell to Freight Agents, Freight
Forwarders, or otherwise.
So what are three great questions for a
Freight Forwarder?
Question number one: do they offer the
services you require? First determine
what services you may need and then find
out if that Freight Forwarder offers
them. In many cases this can be resolved
by checking out their website, however, it
never hurts to ask and
reassure that what you're looking for is
what they offer. Not only will you be
able to discern what services they offer
from the website, you'll probably also be
able to get a pulse from their customers
reviews or testimonials how their
service compares to their competitors.
Question number two: how will they manage
your shipments how will you interact
with them? In general you want to get a
feel for how they handle their customer
service. Is it more than one person who
will be your points of contact? Should an
issue arise, are they easily
available in the event of an emergency?
Remember, these are your goods at risk, so
you want to ensure that should an
issue arise during their contracted
shipment, that they'll be available to
support. You question number three: how
much experience do they have? Perhaps my
favorite question asked, which really
gets to the heart of the matter. How much
experience do you have? As a Freight
Forwarder, Freight Agent, have you been
doing this for years, months, days? Are
they a reputable Freight Forwarder? Again,
you can always start with a basic Google
search and get a wealth of information
including reviews from customers.
As you may have guessed, you can find
Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers
in almost the identical locations. The
easiest solution, which also offers the
best chance at finding reviews, is to do
a basic Google search for a Customs
Broker or Freight Forwarder. Also, while
surfing the net you can stop by Customs'
website;
cbp.gov and look for their interactive
map in which you
can source Customs Brokers per port.
However, if you prefer the old-school
brick-and-mortar option, you can find Customs
Brokers and Freight Forwarders in every
state and, typically, concentrated around
ports, especially the larger ports.
Finally, don't forget that our sister
company, Strix, is a Customs Brokerage and
Freight Forwarder that specializes in
self-filing software as well as domestic,
international freight services. You're
welcome to reach out to us after the
webinar and we can put you in touch with
them if you want to find out if they're a fit
for your company. So if you've made it
this far you hopefully have a better
understanding of Customs Brokers and
Freight Forwarders, but in case you're
still wondering what is the
difference between Customs
Brokers and Freight Forwarders. Well
Customs Brokers expertise is in the
language of Customs and making sure that
all Customs required paperwork is filed
accurately with Customs while Freight
Forwarders are the logistics
professionals who are in charge of
maneuvering your goods from ports and
places to the world to other ports and
places in the world. As a final note, due
to the complimentary nature,
as well as need for cohesion between the
two, we often see that many Customs
Brokers also take on the role of Freight
Forwarder and vice versa. And that's it!
At this time we'd like you to please
submit your questions, we'll try to
answer them in a little bit, but
first we want to tell you a
little more about TRG. While we collect
questions from the audience, I'd like to
tell you about TRG. TRG is an
international trade insurance agency. We
work directly with importers and
exporters. We've been doing this for 26
years, we've got over 13,000 clients that
we work with every day specifically
discussing these complex topics and
helping them navigate through this world
of Customs. We're an additional resource for
them with their
Customs Broker and Freight Forwarder. So
our model does help save time and money
and our multi-year billing cycles are
significantly less usually on the
Customs Bond. Typically, people are paying
somewhere between four hundred and
seventy five and five hundred and
twenty-five dollars for their Customs
Bond and we're down to $225 a year with
our multi-year pricing on the fifty
thousand dollar bond. You can continue to
work with any Broker or Forwarder of
your choice and if any issues arise our
in-house claims assistance from our
Licensed Customs Brokers are available
to help you. All right, let's answer a
few of those questions. First question
from Gary; 'should an importer be
concerned about their Broker if that
Broker has few, if any, questions about
what they're clearing for the importer?'
I'd say that really depends on what kind
of goods you are bringing in and how
frequently. If you're bringing in a
fairly simple commodity a couple of
times a year, you'll likely receive fewer
questions than someone who's bringing in
significantly more complex commodities
at a higher frequency. So to answer your
question, no not necessarily. However, it
never hurts to shop the market if you
feel like your Customs Broker isn't
adequate, don't feel caged in. Check out
the competition. Penny asked; 'what is the
best way to compare costs between
Customs Brokers?' First, I would start by
collecting as much information about the
costs for each of their services,
including specific fees that could be
related to your business. Some Brokers
will break out those prices on their
website. After that I would, you know, more
extensive questioning especially if
you've narrowed it down to three Customs
Brokers and kind of get that in person
if you can or by the phone, whichever
works.
Sandy asked; 'do Customs Brokers review
all of their entries?' Sandy, I'd say that
Customs Brokers worth their salt are
likely reviewing their entries. If you
feel like your Customs Broker isn't on
par, it never hurts to get a second
opinion from another Customs Broker.
Thank you, for attending the webinar if
you have any questions please don't
hesitate to reach out to me directly by
my email at
nick.esposito@traderiskguaranty.com or
you can reach out to us via our Facebook
group 'International Trade Professionals
- TRG'. The added advantage reaching out
to the Facebook group is you'll access
not only our experts on staff, but also
experts in the international trade community.
Additionally, check out our blog
www.traderiskguaranty.com/TRGPeak it's got
a treasure trove of excellent articles
and information. Don't forget you can
find us on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin,
Instagram, and most importantly on
YouTube. If you'd like to be notified
when we release the recording of this
webinar and all of our awesome videos as
soon as they come out, subscribe to our
YouTube channel. Again thank you for
attending the webinar!
[Music]
For more infomation >> Os erros da esquerda - Duration: 1:19. 
For more infomation >> MINUTO - AMANECER - Duration: 2:59. 
For more infomation >> BAHARLA GELEN TEHLİKE POLEN ALERJİSİ (Sesli Anlatım) - Duration: 10:13. 
For more infomation >> Como o BI da Teknisa gerou benefícios à Acoplation? - Duration: 0:53. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét